So, what happened with the old blog?

Now that the bulk of my website move has been completed I thought I’d explain (to the best of my ability) what happened at the original Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles.  It’s a big mess, and something of a pain.  I certainly hope it never happens again.  In part, that’s why I moved my new address to Media Temple.

Last year the original site came under a series of attacks.  Simple hacks to my web templates (the web site’s actual design), inserted code in a post here and there, nothing major.  I’d get a notification from a reader here and there that they’d been redirected to another site when viewing a certain post.  The post would be checked and cleaned and I moved on.

But then the attacks ramped up.  I read several articles that IX had been targeted, and I was unfortunately on one of their servers.  Things continued to get worse, more hacks were found, and the maintenance drove me crazy.

After deciding to stop updating at Hikenbike.net I downloaded a copy of my database to my Mac and took a look through all the entries.  Multiple scripts had been inserted right into my database.  Not something I could regulate from here, and the staff at IX had no interest in assisting or preventing such attacks.

In total, many items were hacked:

• Multiple web templates were hacked.  I’d delete the template and load a clean one.  Days later the hackers would get in again.
• My database was directly hacked, and code was inserted into random posts.
• Finally the database continued to drop.  I don’t know if it was hackers or just IX.  I can say that it normally took 48 hours for IX to respond to me.  Pathetic customer service to say the least.  So, I left them!

From what I understand about my new host (researched for weeks) they’re used to high volume web sites.  They host for some pretty big names.  Those big names should be targets way before a small site like mine.  Given the fact they keep the larger sites going I’m sure the needs of an Airstream owner with a blog will seem small.  😉

There’s the story.

I’ve sorted through the old database, cleaned up the junk, and I’m considering loading it to my new server at some point.  Several years of blogging there, a lot of travel, good stuff and bad stuff.  I’d like to have it somewhere at some point!  But I’ll take my time with that.  I’m liking the new site, and I’m looking forward to growing it back to the level that Hikenbike.net was.  Actually, back to the level the original Airstream Chronicles blog was at!  😉